Robin McGinnis:  

I lost my direction the year we graduated from high school, 1978. Getting involved with someone who loved drugs more that life itself was a big mistake that I paid for with 15 years of my life. Those years were very difficult for me, and I lost contact with almost everyone. To be honest, I was did not want anyone to know about the abusive situation I had placed myself in. So I hid myself away from as many people as possible, put up the good front for my family, and worked and went to school as often as I could. Anything to get away from him. It took the death of a co-worker who was murdered by his estranged wife to bring me to my senses. If I didn’t make some very tough choices, I was going to end up just like him… dead. In 1993, nearing our 15th wedding anniversary, I filed for a divorce. It was a very dangerous time in my life. He violated every restraining order I filed, and the local police advised me to move out of the state. I just wasn’t going to let him do that to me, so I borrowed a shotgun from my brother-in-law. Letting my soon to be ex-husband stare down the barrel of a shotgun with my finger on the trigger did wonders for his attitude! Ironically, he was the one that ended up leaving the state. It took me a few years to get my feet on the ground both mentally and financially, but I did it. I went back to school and got an Applied Sci...Expand for more